In the old Lone Ranger TV shows, the Lone Ranger would say to his horse Silver, “High-O Silver Away,” and now, after decades in the doldrums, physical Silver is taking off to the moon.
For decades, JP Morgan has been keeping the price of Silver below $30. through naked paper silver short contracts, and they ended up paying $920 million in fines for manipulating the precious metals markets. Now, they’ve switched sides and have begun accumulating silver, and not just a little silver. They spent $22 billion on 750 million ounces (almost as much as the entire world mines in a year). And the exchanges are empty, physical silver is almost impossible to find.
Currently, there are 2.4 paper claims for every physical ounce. In other words, it’s like having 2.4 musical chairs players for every available silver chair. This has the makings of a giant “Short-Squeeze” that can drive prices up many multiples. Manufacturers of Solar panels, Semiconductors, and Electric cars are already feeling the squeeze. They need silver no matter what the price. Without silver they are out of business and even if silver prices double it only adds a few extra dollars to the cost of the product.
These manufacturers consumed 1.2 billion ounces of Silver in 2025 alone. But, Global mine production in 2025 is only 835 million ounces, so consumption massively exceeds production. And this is the 6th consecutive year that global consumption has outpaced production.
Could JPMorgan be trying to corner the Silver market the same way the Hunt Brothers did in 1979, when they drove prices to almost $50 per ounce? The two brothers drove silver prices from $6.08 to $49.45, in a single year. If we adjust the peak Silver price based on the CPI index, Silver would have to exceed $200 per ounce to reach Hunt Brothers’ levels. Can the mighty JP Morgan-Chase do the same (or more) with their 3.9 trillion in assets?
But the Hunt Brothers made one critical mistake: they didn’t hold physical silver. So, ultimately, they failed when the government pulled the rug out from under them by raising margin requirements on their silver contracts. The government just tried that trick against JPMorgan, but this time it won’t work because there is no margin contract when you hold the actual physical silver.
Changing the Rules:
The following video covers the Margin Requirement change that ultimately will fail. Remember those 2.4 to 1 odds? Well, that only applies to people holding “paper silver,” i.e., contracts to buy silver. Physical silver holders already have their chair.
Most Silver contracts never take physical delivery. Unlike JPMorgan, they simply settle for cash. But if everyone decided to take delivery, there wouldn’t be enough silver. By raising margin requirements, the exchange forced most paper holders to sell for cash because they didn’t have enough available cash reserves when COMEX upped the ante. So, just like Poker players, they had to “fold”. This forced smaller players out, but remember JPMorgan got out of the paper game and was holding physical silver, so this doesn’t affect them in the least. The following video details the December 12th rule change.
Thanks to the original YouTube creators for these videos.
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